Your Visit to Medical Eye Center

We want your experience with us to be as comfortable as possible. Feel free to call ahead with any questions you may have or to ask them when you arrive. Our friendly staff will be happy to assist you.

What to Expect

To provide you with the best eye care possible, we need information about your overall health and medical history.

Patient Forms

To better serve you, our new patient forms are now available online. These can be printed and filled out beforehand and brought along to your visit. Please give them to us when you check in for your appointment along with a list of your current medications, insurance card and drivers license or other photo ID.

NOTE: These forms are provided for your convenience and to help expedite your visit. However, providing your health information prior to your visit does not establish a patient/doctor relationship. A relationship is established only when you have been seen by your provider.

What to Bring

For your first visit to Medical Eye Center, please bring the following items:

All patient forms filled out.

All of your prescription eye wear.

A list of all the medications you are currently taking.

A list of any allergies you may have to medications.

Your medical insurance card (if you have one).

A list of questions. We want you to have all the information you need.

Typical Appointments

The average total time for a new visit is about 90 minutes. A typical first-time appointment has four steps:

Fill out paperwork (if you haven’t already done so).

Your scheduled appointment time begins with the review of your medical history and other completed patient forms.

Our technicians will perform several diagnostic tests that your doctor will use to arrive at a diagnosis and treatment plan. Gathering this data takes the majority of your appointment time and involves moving to several stations in our clinic to access the appropriate technology.

Your doctor arrives to examine your eyes.

For example, if your appointment is at 10:00 am, you can expect to see the doctor 30 to 45 minutes later for your examination. Most of your doctor’s time is spent reviewing the results of various tests, then planning and documenting your care. Often, this work doesn’t occur while your doctor is in the room with you. Depending on the nature of your visit, your doctor’s time with you may be relatively brief, especially if everything is straightforward and you have few questions.

Retina Appointments

If your visit is for a retina issue, please be aware that retina exams require even more extensive testing. It’s not unusual for retina appointments to be 2 to 3 hours in length.

Dilation and Driving

Most first-time comprehensive exams involve the dilation of your eyes. If so, you may be very sensitive to direct sunlight and your vision can be quite blurry. This condition may interfere with your ability to drive safely. If your eyes have been dilated, we highly recommend that you have someone drive you home or back to work afterwards. We want you to arrive safely!

Subsequent Visits

Post-operative visits are usually much shorter. Depending on the procedure, your doctor often just needs to examine your eyes to make sure you’re healing appropriately and then answer any questions you may have. Testing is usually minimal for these visits. Follow-up exams and other sorts of treatment visits may also be quite short.

Emergencies

Everyone at Medical Eye Center works hard to keep our schedule running on time. Please understand that patients who need eye care have a variety of issues. Some people are here for a routine exam to get a prescription for new glasses. These visits generally proceed as planned. Another patient might be seeing us because of an emergency that threatens their vision and needs immediate attention.

Unforeseen Wait Times

When our schedule is disrupted by unforeseen emergencies, we really do appreciate your patience. On the rare occasion there is a significant delay in your appointment time, we promise to let you know as soon as possible, we understand you have other plans for your day as well. If the delay is long, we are happy to give you the option of leaving to run an errand, waiting with our apology, or rescheduling your appointment.